Report of the APRSAF/SAFE Virtual Workshop Co-hosted by GISTDA and JAXA

< Last Update: Mar. 22, 2021 >

The APRSAF/SAFE Virtual Workshop was held online on January 28, 2021. It was co-organized by Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), Thailand and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The main topic of workshop was sharing progress of SAFE Evolution projects (Agromet and Rice Crop Monitoring). Also, the cloud based SAFE Virtual Platform for project management, knowledge sharing, data/tool sharing during the pandemic situation was introduced. Around 90 people from Asia-Pacific countries and international organizations were participated in this meeting.

Report of the APRSAF/SAFE Virtual Workshop

The SAFE meeting was led by co-chairs, Dr. Damrongrit Niammuad, GISTDA and Dr. Kei Oyoshi, JAXA. First of all, Dr. Pakorn Apaphant, Executive Director of GISTDA made welcome address by video message. He expressed that SAFE activities contribute to social benefits and technology innovative research and development toward communities through capacity building and its networks. He also mentioned that through the discussion in this meeting, the participants would gain case studies on agricultural management and have chance to join the projects with local authorities through sharing the experiences.

In the first session of the workshop, the progress of SAFE Evolution projects (Agromet and Rice Crop Monitoring) was reported. The Agromet Project led by ISRO much progressed with comparison of ISRO and JAXA / GISTDA and JAXA Agromet products in some study areas. Promoting the use of Agromet products in other countries in Asia-Pacific region and their capacity building are expected. The Rice Crop Monitoring Project led by GISTDA was initiated with multilateral cooperation and would expand the activities to other agencies in collaboration with Servir/Mekong, AsiaRice/GEOGLAM, CEOS and ASEAN SCOSA. Also we shared the experiences of demonstration of rice statistics improvement using ALOS-2/INAHOR in Cambodia with participants.

The second session of the workshop was reports on SAFE Virtual Platform. The main purposes of platform were 1) to keep SAFE projects active (Project Management), 2) to deepen the interactions among SAFE members (Knowledge sharing), and 3) t accelerate collaboration using cloud platform with data and tools. We tried to make SAFE activities proactive through this platform even during difficult situation caused by COVID-19. After sharing the concept, demonstration of cloud-based ALOS-2/INAHOR on SAFE Virtual Platform was conducted. Currently the INAHOR is moved to the cloud platform and will be shared with SAFE collaborators.

Result of the APRSAF/SAFE Workshop

Opening Session

  1. Welcome speech by Co-Chairs (Dr. Damrongrit Niammuad, GISTDA and Dr. Kei Oyoshi, JAXA)
  2. Video message from the Executive Director of GISTDA, Dr. Pakorn Apaphant

Report on Agromet Project

  1. ISRO is leading the Agromet project with the support of JAXA and GISTDA
  2. Comparison of ISRO and JAXA Agromet products including NDVI, LST, and precipitation based on GCOM-W, MODIS, INSAT and OCM over Odisha, India and Ang Thong Thailand is completed with satisfactory results following extensive research work such as atmospheric correction on data.
  3. GISTDA and JAXA product comparison over Thailand shows similar trends and the work will be finalized soon.
  4. Practical applicability of multi-agency Agromet products will be demonstrated via SAFE Virtual portal; target to use products in AFSIS Rice Outlook Report, promote in agricultural institutes in each country etc.
  5. Emphasized the need to promote the use of Agromet products in other countries in Asia and capacity building, probably on prototype basis in smaller areas as a start

Report on Rice Crop Monitoring (Mapping) Project

  1. Confirm the willingness to participation and support of the project
    • GISTDA: fully supports the project, including the capacity building components.
    • ISRO: collaborate on capacity building, including with IIRS, and cross-comparison with ISRO products.
    • JAXA: supports the project including ALOS-2, INAHOR sharing, cross-comparison studies.
    • VAST-VNSC: VNSC’s support for the rice monitoring project, plans to continue their Mekong Delta work.
    • LAPAN: support rice mapping project with agromet project for rice production estimation.
    • ADPC: Cross-validation can be done between other existing regional products and offered to connect with this project.
  2. Suggestion
    • ASEAN SCOSA for support and disseminate the results to member countries
    • Impact of COVID-19 on rice production and whether specific outreach has occurred on this topic
  3. Sharing the results of project
    • MAFF/Cambodia: Demonstration of rice statistics improvement using ALOS-2/INAHOR
    • ISRO: Cross-comparison and integration of rice map from ISRO and JAXA in CEOS 2020 Initiative

Reports on SAFE Virtual Platform

  1. Summarized the SAFE Virtual Platform by Mr. Tsugito Nagano of SAFE Secretariat and Cloud-based ALOS-2/INAHOR on SAFE VP was demonstrated;
    • The objectives of the Virtual platform: to continue SAFE main activities; Project management, Knowledge sharing, Data/tool sharing during the pandemic situation
    • Currently Slack is used for communication and plan to introduce to all the SAFE participants
    • Cloud based platform for data and tools sharing, which is more complicated, is being developed. Currently the INAHOR is moved to the cloud platform and will be shared with SAFE collaborators

Suggestions

  1. Consider to use web-based satellite data processing system on VEDAS platform operated by ISRO.
  2. Consider to define the target area for both projects in each participating courtiers.
  3. Rice Watch Project by Univ. of Sydney and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) would be a good one to be compared with.
  4. UN ESCAP proposes to share the good practices made by countries under SAFE in their “spaceX” portal. APRSAF SAWG good practice would be a good input.

» Agenda and Presentation materials